Diablo 3 Incoming Patches Detailed
Blizzard breaks down exactly what they're looking to change.
Diablo 3 has been on store shelves for two weeks now, and millions of gamers everywhere have been slaying the monsters of New Tristram with a built up resource tank of blood thirsty anticipation. It would be easy for many to forget that the development team is hard at work on the game with post-launch fixes. Luckily, in a recent blog post, the team revealed that they are already releasing patch 1.0.2 within a week that will address service issues. Following this will be patch 1.0.3 that will bring substantial changes to the core gameplay. One of the first gameplay balances that the team will be attempting to bring to Diablo 3 will occur within Inferno. Stating that there's far too much damage "spikiness" that occurs, and in tweaking this aspect of the game they will help further promote their design philosophy of promoting build diversity. In promoting build diversity they aim to keep all classes a contender for Inferno play. With these changes they are also ensuring that the champion packs, rare packs, and boss encounters of Inferno will remain the best way to score powerhouse loot. The team acknowledges that the damage dealt within Inferno is a little off, however they see many players attempting this highest difficulty without sufficient gear. They're encouraging gamers to return to previous Act's and farm upgrades to ensure your survival. With this in mind, they went on to state:
"...wed like to shift some of the focus away from survival and more toward using a variety of offensive tactics to succeed. Survival will still be important, but finding ways to maximize your damage while staying alive is more exciting. Were not particularly concerned with whether or not a boss is beatable, though it should feel epic and challenging to defeat it. Were more concerned with ensuring that acquiring 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor and taking on as many Champions and Rares as you can remains the most challenging and rewarding way to play."Another core focus for the team is addressing the issue of items being "underpowered" according to the community. Many would expect Legendary items to be exactly what they advertise, Legendary. Yet, the team has created a game where often you will uncover rare items that can possibly roll "perfect" stats that would easily beat out the set statistics of a Legendary item. While I won't fully understand this design choice, few others do, it is good to clearly understand that Legendary items are effectively eye candy. They may be good for a short period of time, but by the end of your 34 hour marathon runs, you may very well find a fare better piece of armor with random stats. To help clear up some of this controversy check out what the team had to say:
"One problem weve seen -- and intend to correct quickly -- is players comparing high-level Magic (blue) items to lower-level Legendary items as proof of an imbalance. To help correct misconceptions of the actual stat budgets allocated to items, well be exposing item levels (ilvl) of 60+ items in patch 1.0.3. Comparing an ilvl 63 blue to an ilvl 60 Legendary will hopefully make a bit more sense afterward. In addition, were planning to just straight-out buff Legendary items in a future patch..."
The team is planning to create a wider range of affix diversity and the unique bonuses of Legendary items. This update will likely be coming with the PVP patch in the near future. One thing to note is that Legendary items with new stats will not be retroactive, so you will need to crawl through countless dungeons once again. I doubt this will be a problem for many of you. Another point of issue, is addressing the way in which the Blacksmith levels in combination with his crafting costs, and the gem combination system. With the goal of having the Blacksmith level with you in order to provide you with applicable gear, it seems that the team will need to adjust the cost for training, crafting from lvl 1-59, and making two gems the requirement as opposed to three. These changes will make it into patch 1.0.3. Clearly, Blizzard is paying attention to gamer's concerns. If they aren't changing a game mechanic, they are attempting to better explain design decisions in order to help players better understand the mechanics behind the title. While there still isn't a release date for patch 1.0.3, be sure to stay tuned for more Diablo 3 info as it becomes available. Let us know what you think of these changes below. Are they for the greater good of the game, or is Blizzard just dropping the ball with Diablo 3?